Word: revel
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...perennial if ambiguous fascination with the mystery that is America. In 1830 that observant Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville saw in America "the image of democracy itself, with its inclinations, its prejudices and its passions." A century and a half later, another astute French observer, Jean-François Revel (Without Marx or Jesus) described America as "an example for all democracies and all technological societies today." Other observers argue that America is an example of precisely what other modern nations should...
Something of the same double vision plagues the French. Says Revel, France's best-known America watcher: "The French are, of course, ignorant of American society in any case. They live a continual ambiguity. On the one hand, they are unconsciously seduced and fascinated by American life, and they love to imitate it. On the other hand, it is almost a national custom to reject U.S. actions and disparage American institutions out of hand...
...unreconstructed hypochondriac, he had headaches, cramps, insomnia and a nervous stomach from worrying-largely about his headaches, cramps, insomnia and stomach. Though some of his ailments, such as slipped discs, bone chips, blood clots, pulled muscles and malaria, were undoubtedly for real, Pirate fans came to expect and even revel in the complaints of "Mr. Aches and Pains." It was almost axiomatic that the worse Roberto said he felt, the better he played. "If Clemente can walk," the New York Mets' Tommy Agee said before the 1972 season, "he can hit." Hit he did, registering a .300-plus average...
...only by Edgar's threat to reveal Kurt's history of embezzlement. But a final seizure takes Edgar out of the picture, leaving him paralyzed. He states inanely at the audience and groans out words which only his wife can translate for us. Kurt leaves husband and wife to revel in their misery...
...Andy Warhol epigone Paul Morrissey, who, like his master, exploits the sorry selection of freaks who have been recruited for the cast. Thus the audience is invited to have a good laugh at the gargoyle visage of Miles, chortle over Dallesandro's near-autistic blankness, and revel in the antics of an obese motel owner, and a schizophrenic lesbian. The lazy profanity and the grungy, grim quality of Heat's ambidextrous sexuality will be familiar and predictable to Warhol addicts. What is despicable about Heat is the way it both flaunts and mocks the grotesqueries of its cast...